San Carlos to Hermosillo to home

Back home in beautiful Green Valley Lake, CA

Well, we hauled out Espiritu in San Carlos, Mexico and stuck her in the yard on the hard

 for a little vacation from Chris and I. 

We were only in San Carlos for a few days before returning to The Other World (the states)

 to make sure our home was still standing,  but we 

did get to see a bit of the area before heading out: 

Mount Tetakawi towers over the San Carlos anchorage

I took this photo of the water's surface from Espiritu's cockpit in the San Carlos anchorage. 

What you're seeing is the morning clouds reflecting off of the surface.

A cactus grows through the roof of an abandoned San Carlos building

Our friend Bret of s/v LeaHona shows off his "Captain's Cockpit Pee Cup." 

 Guys use these while sailing on night watch so they don't have to hang 

over the side in adverse weather to "take care of bidniz." Countless men have fallen to their deaths this way (they fall in, the boat goes on without them, nobody notices...).

Chris helps protect a caterpillar crossing a San Carlos street 

Lovely hotel and restaurant at the San Carlos anchorage

It was time to fly home for a short spell.  Mexico now requires foreign cruisers to leave the country every 6 months to renew our visas. Of course we hate this inconvenience, but I gotta say I understand why they do it.

Cruising Mexico is so beautiful, comfortable and inexpensive that if they didn't have this rule, many/most of us sailing gringos would simply never leave, and the gorgeous anchorages with 3 or 4 boats in them would look like this:

What Mexico's anchorages would look like if they didn't get rid of the riff-raff

We took the bus from San Carlos north to Hermosillo, home of the nearest international airport.

We tucked into a little hotel in Hermosillo as we would be flying north early the next morning.

Our hotel in Hermosillo near the airport

The hotel had a nice, all you can eat buffet. We decided to splurge and

 pop in for a nice dinner before hitting the racks early.

These signs were on the outside of the restaurant. I get "no weapons," and "shoes required," but...

NO TANK-TOPS? 

Whaaaa?

When I'm sailing/cruising in a tropical locale, you will nearly always find me wearing shorts and a tank top with my bathing suit on underneath.

It's my UNIFORM. 

Chris and me (wearing a tank-top) crewing aboard s/v Callisto in Portugal, 2002

So, I was a bit insulted by the "no tank tops" sign at the restaurant. When we saw the price of the buffet (180 pesos each -- about $9.00 per plate), that was the deal breaker. We walked out.

I know, in the states, $9.00 for a nice dinner is a deal, especially for a buffet.

But what people don't realize about the cruising lifestyle is this:

 People assume we cruisers are independently wealthy.

 But the truth is, most of us are living on a budget below the poverty line.

Being consistently frugal is the answer to the question:

How can you afford to quit your jobs and do this?

By walking away from $9.00 buffets, that's how.

We headed up the street and started exploring this part of Hermosillo on foot. 

                 A few blocks away, we found an adorable little taco stand that sold us healthy 

servings of shrimp tacos for a little more than a buck.

We found our little outdoor Hermosillo taco stand.

#Happy.  :-) 

The next morning we arrived at the Hermosillo airport for our flight to Tijuana.

Boarding the jet, we saw what appeared to be a crashed airliner in the bushes off the runway.

Crashed airliner off the end of the runway?

I dunno. Crashed jetliner? Maybe this is where they were hiding the missing Malasia Airline flight 370 airliner? Who knows...we boarded our jet and took off.

We arrived in Tijuana and then walked across the border lugging our stuff.

I had to laugh sympathetically at the "Tijuana Duty Free" shop (actually, there's an "e" missing here, so it's "Duty Fre_"). No $100 bottles of scotch here, no way, boys. That's the Geneva Duty Free. Here in TJ, it's just really really cheap looking plastic flower headbands. Not sure how the "Duty Free" aspect is much help with this merchandise.

We hucked across the border, and just like that we were in The Other World:

The San Diego train station

After visiting with family in the OC, we made our way up to our cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains to make sure she's still standing. She is! :-) 

We took a long walk around the lake and visited with locals we hadn't seen for more than a year.

Autumn leaves float on the surface of Green Valley Lake

We were thrilled to see the town has added an adorable

 little teeny-tiny book exchange in the town garden!

We went down the hill to a pumpkin carving party at my sister JoAnna's house.

As is the tradition in our family, there would be a pumpkin competition -- with prizes such as the prettiest, most original, scariest, etc.  After much thought I 

decided I would do a Donald Trump jack-o-lantern. 

My niece Lindsay thought it sounded like a good idea. "And besides," 

she added, "he's already orange!"

First I drew the plans for my pumpkin:

My plan for my Donald Trump pumpkin carving

And without further adieu, here it is, the final product:

My Donald Trump jack-o-lantern. 

It won the prize for the "weirdest" pumpkin. I'd say there's a certain synchronicity to that.

Happy Halloween, everybody!